Treating students like cattle

From:WorkingForChange

...In rural Sutter, California, a town just north of Sacramento with a population of 2,300, a controversial new program has all of the students in the one-school district being forced to wear radio-frequency identification badges that can track the students. It's the same technology used to track cattle in feedlots, or product inventory in factories.

...The motivation for this system is not entirely a mystery; it turns out that the company that makes the technology, InCom, is a local company co-founded by the parent of a former Brittan student. Some parents are suspicious of the financial arrangements between the district and the company, which hopes to market the technology nationwide.

...It should scarcely have to be said, but human beings, no matter how small, are not cattle. They are not widgets in a factory. They do not deserve to be treated as such. Teachers should be able to recognize names, not just badge numbers on an electronic readout.

There is no particular reason to have students wear this sort of paraphernalia, except to remind them... that the students are owned by the school.

...The scariest thing about this technology is that there is absolutely no reason it need be limited to elementary school students, and there is virtually no limit to the amount of information it can carry...

Written by:Geov Parish